Discs 1-3 include music recorded during the Baden-Baden New Jazz Meeting in Südwestfunk Studios in Baden-Baden. The music on discs 4-5 was recorded at a public performance on November 25, 1976 at Kurfürstliches Schloss in Mainz.

This was discreetly slipped into the contributions section a while ago by Alex in Solex. I thought that was quite convenient, because it saved me the time it would take to digitize my own copy, so basically what I've done is to add track titles, convert the files from wav to flac and scan the front and back of the album covers. Nice work, too, if I may add, so thanks to Alex for the job.

This was, I believe, the third last album Trevor Watts did with his Amalgam group, The following, "Over the Rainbow" and "Wipe Out", added Keith Rowe on guitars and were interestingly a source of imspiration for the indie rock Sonic Youth group. After that, Trevor Watts headed in a more rhytmically complex direction with his Moiré Music concept, combining jazz with African-inspired percussion and even, as has been suggested, the rigorous composition technique of Philip Glass and other American minimalists. That compositional complexity was to some degree foreshadowed by the excellent "Cynosure" by the Trevor Watts String Ensemble a few years before (1976) and released on the Ogun label in 1978. The Ensemble was a much larger group than the trio on display here. This one runs the gamut from tight funk to the more spacious improvisation of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, with which Trevor Watts was associated for many years. In fact, the very early Amalgam albums had John Stevens on drums and have been posted here before. This album reflects the individual personalities of the players, one coming from a jazz-improv background, one from soul and funk and one from rock and blues.This diversity shines through on this record and makes for an, shall we say, interesting amalgam. A very fine record all in all, I think and really quite accessible.

This album was first released as an untitled 2LP set on the Japanese BYG label in 1973.
The first CD edition on Affinity was titled "Student Studies". Later Black Lion issued another CD edition entitled "The Great Paris Concert".
The original cover is included in the files...
...and I have added two pieces from (most probably) the same session - 40 minutes more from this excellent group.

21 April 2014

Joe Phillips here credited under his muslim name Yusuf Mumin plays alto sax. He is accompanied by Abdul Wadud on cello and bass, credited under his birth name Ron (Ronald) DeVaughn. The last musician, Haasan-Al-hut on percussions, is I think a totally unknown player that was recorded only during this session. The more well-known of the participants is of course Wadud who is one of most important cellists in free jazz. The only other known session to which Phillips participated was the ESP recording of trumpeter Norman Howard that was just recently reissued as "Burn Baby Burn" ... also a pretty obscure recording in itself (we're reaching the darkest corners of free jazz history here !). The group was from the Cleveland area, probably from Oberlin where Wadud studied. Recording date is not indicated but we can think that it took place after 1968 (recording of the Norman Howard ESP session where Phillips is not listed under his muslim name) and before 1972 (release of Julius Hemphill's "Dogon A.D." where Wadud is credited under his muslim name and do not double on bass anymore).

A word on the label and pressing. Amongst the rather small amount of info featured on the back cover, we learn that the disc was manufactured by Rite Records, an Ohio based operation offering low-costs packaging to its customers that included everything needed to make a record : recording, mixing, mastering and pressing. It is likely that the "Salaam" label existed only with the release of this record (the catalog number would second that, its choice seems more related to symbolism than to practical counting reasons).

That's it for the historical info. Maybe something on the music itself later but trust me, it is pretty good. My favourite part of the record is the second side, just check Wadud's arco work on "Opening Prayer" and on the intro of "John's Vision" and I think you'll be convinced.

As my rip originates from a cassette copy (lots of thanks to NK from Japan by the way) I choosed to post only MP3 at 320, but if some of our readers really want to get a lossless version just let me know in the comments.

14 April 2014

More Terumasa Hino, here's a favourite, unbelievably out of print, by Hino's touring quintet of the early 70's, incredibly inventive unit , stradling freeish post Bop, Fusion you name it..
Of note specifically is some remarkably free shredding by guitarist Kyoshi Sugimoto,(Taku Sugimoto's father) who steals the show here, for me , along with Hino's folksy vocal tone and incendiary attack...

Cycle Circle, on side one has a lurching ominousness that's very similar territory to K.Komeda's Astigmatic.

Here's a full performnce of this power trio at last year's Moers festival in Germany. The announcer draws the power trio lineage as far back as Cream, a band that always left room for long stetches of improvisation, even though their repertoire was song-based. This lot, though, is fully improvisational throughout, or at least, that's how it sounds. Raoul Björkenheim has worked in the trio format before, notably with the Scorch Trio which has been inactive lately and Bill Laswell played in the Painkiller trio with John Zorn and Mick Harris. We'll get to the Scorchers in due course. The name, meaning lightning in Swedish, does sort of indicate what they're up to.

I saw them last year, on the same tour I think, and recorded the entire thing on the cell phone, but listening to the playback, quickly realised that a cell phone can't handle the sonic barrage of these gentlemen. Of course, listening and watching this video is hardly any substitute for watchng them live. The propulsive playing of drummer Morgan Ågren betrays his background in prog and metal which was to some extent a defining characteristic of Painkiller which in fact released some of their work on metal labels. Anyhow, here's a set of loudness interspersed with quieter passages, but not for too long. I happen to like the quiet parts better, but that's just me.

Blixt
Moers Jazz Fest
Moers Germany
May 18 2013

Webcast>Jaksta>Flv>You

This is the Arte live Webcast of Blixt's red hot performance at moers

Raoul Björkenheim Guitar
Bill Laswell bass
Morgan Ågren Drums

Technical point: This video is in the flv format and it works well with the VLC player. I should add that the action starts at the eight minute mark. Ideally it could have been cut shorter, but I don't have the requisite software for that.

Kudos to "punkjazz" at the Dime site for grabbing and uploading.
To be ferociously enjoyed, as always.

For an Australian friend...
A great Paul Bley trio session, put out by radio Canada international transcription service, recorded in Montreal in December 68, i believe this was Bley's last entirely acoustic release from the sixties and for some time until ECM'S, Open to Love, last in a glorious sequence spanning ten or so indispensable records, and one of the few which has never made it to cd ..

Four great tunes by Annette Peacock , his wife at the time, with Mario Pavone's only stint in Bleys acoustic trio.
For some inexplicable reason this album is not mentioned In the Paul Bley entry on the Jazz discographies project site.
this album's been posted as mp3's at lucky psychic hut , and may well still be available somewhere in that format.
Bley's website, a rich source of articles , interviews and home of the IAI label